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Crimes &amp; Criminals

Anonymous Patron writes "The New York Times has more on all those missing books at the National Library in France. Even so, Le Figaro asserted that the report provides a disturbing portrait of the difficulties of protecting as many as 35 million books, documents, manuscripts, maps and photographs.

"To turn the library into a locked safe would be easy, but it is not our vocation," the newspaper quoted AgnÃ¨s Saal, the library's director-general, as saying. "Unlike museums, our documents are there to be consulted.""

Speaking of theft, here's news from Paris of a theft on a very grand scale, where the curator of the French National Library (Michel Garel, an internationally known expert on Hebrew texts) is accused of stealing over 30,000 books, many rare and irreplaceable.

So chaotic are the library's cataloguing and security systems it is impossible to know when books were stolen. Some may have been "lost" in an institution that houses 35 million objects. But a year-long investigation by the president of the BibliothÃ¨que Nationale de France (BNF) found the library had been systematically pillaged over many years.

Further to our story last month on Irma H. Duke, former director and 30-year veteran of the Phenix City-Russell County Library (GA), a judge has ruled that Ms. Duke will not receive jail time for her crime but must repay the money she took and serve probation.

Duke was fired last summer after an investigation disclosed that she took advantage of a process in which she was issued pre-signed blank checks to pay library employees.

Within the three-year period covered by the investigation, Duke routinely wrote herself two paychecks when she was due only one and misused $70,000 of library funds. Story from the Ledger-Enquirer.

MANSFIELD, LA - Former Stanley High School librarian Deborah Wilkinson must serve two years of probation for stealing money from the Parent Teacher Association and the school system.

DeSoto Parish District Court Judge Robert Burgess also ordered Wilkinson to repay eight-thousand-729 dollars to the P-T-A and 532 dollars to the DeSoto School Board. Story from Lousiana TV Station KATC.

Cortez writes "Folks in Portland are missing some library items - 18,786 to be exact - yes, that sounds bad but how big is their total collection? I have trouble finding a pair of socks.Here's The Story
All 17 branches will now store the most easily taken items â€” DVDs and CDs â€” behind the checkout counter. At the three largest branches, systems already in place meant to deter thieves have been disabled by library personnel â€” after repeated malfunction.
Ginny Cooper, the former library director, said she unplugged the magnetic security gates six years ago and stopped hiding magnetic sensors in most of the library's collection because there were so many false alarms."

Anonymous Patron writes "News from Ukiah, California where The county library is out some $65,000 and a Ukiah woman is behind bars, after she was arrested Friday on suspicion of grand theft embezzlement.

Anonymous Patron writes "Columbus Ledger-Enquirer - Columbus,GA reports Former Phenix City-Russell County Librarian Irma H. Duke was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison and ordered to repay $70,000 to the library after she pleaded guilty to first-degree theft of property."

The Tri-Town Transcript Reports More than 70 Middleton, MA, residents got a rude awakening Sunday morning after realizing they'd been victims of what later proved to be a town-wide larceny of signs in support of the Flint Library's "Save Our Library" campaign.